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kingofzdom t1_j5zrgte wrote

I completely forget where I read this, so apologies for this but

There's a region of Russia with iron-based red sand. It is theorized that this was where we got the first refined iron from as all you need to refine this red sand is a clay crucible and a particularly hot fire.

This red sand is only present in any significant quantity in this region of Russia, so until methods of getting refined iron from virgin ores became available it was extremely rare.

A similar thing happened with steel; humans knew how to make steel for thousands of years, it just wasn't practical to use for anything other than high-end weapons and tools until someone figured out how to mass produce it in the 19th century.

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Chagrinnish t1_j60rufv wrote

The modern method of iron refining still uses a blast furnace. That amounts to filling a tall, cylindrical structure with layers of coal and iron, lighting it, and then blowing air into the bottom until molten iron starts leaking out. Of course it's a bit more elegant than that, but I don't think there's any large-scale production of iron anywhere in the world that simply cooks the iron in a crucible.

Primitive Technology has a good example of how it would be done in earlier times.

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